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the perfect gamepad

I held out for years and years before finally buying an Xbox 360 gamepad for my PC. The analog sticks are good and I love the analog shoulder buttons but the rest is bollocks. The directional thumbpad is useless and the whole thing feels hollow and cheap despite the price.

Can anyone recommend a good all-purpose gamepad? I play dual analog shooters, platformers, driving games, emulated games, and pretty much anything designed to be played with a gamepad. I'm looking for something sturdy, precise, and preferably compatible with the proprietary Xbox gamepad spec (so that it works in games that require that gamepad).

I have 4 controllers I use with some regularity.
A Cyborg pro evo for flying, and mech games
A wired official 360 pad for the 360 pad or death ports and arcade racing and driving tanks in battlefield games
A streetfighter fightpad 360 controller for 2d platformer games and the like
A (now sadly broken) Racing wheel for more simmy type racing.

If you just need something with a d-pad, go with one of the 360's Mad Catz fight pads or one of the Saturn controllers they're emulating. Mad Catz makes a lot of different models of these (Street Fighter 4, WWE, SFvT) so look around for a design/price you like.

If you want the whole package, Hori EX2. The other option is one of the redesigned Microsoft controllers. You'll have to get a wireless adapter for it, but the added weight of the battery might help it feel a little less "hollow" than the wired one you have.

"Hollow" as in "light"? Not sure why that would be a bad thing. And I hope by "cheap" you don't mean "flimsy" because it isn't. I've been using mine for years now and it hasn't broken. It's certainly accurate enough as well. I'll agree with you on the d-pad (which hardly sees any use anyway), but aside from that the 360's is my favourite gamepad ever.

You can 'dirty mod' the dpad on the 360 controller, just don't fucking cut yourself doing it! Google it if interested. I've done it to two controllers now and it makes a big difference. My controllers are old though, not sure if they ever fixed them with newer pads.

"Hollow" as in "light"? Not sure why that would be a bad thing. And I hope by "cheap" you don't mean "flimsy" because it isn't. I've been using mine for years now and it hasn't broken. It's certainly accurate enough as well. I'll agree with you on the d-pad (which hardly sees any use anyway), but aside from that the 360's is my favourite gamepad ever.

Oh, I hate the thing. I guess I've been spoiled by years of Logitech Rumbepads because the 360 controller is so lousy in comparison.

It feels both hollow and flimsy to me. The buttons feel mushy and not clicky enough and the d-pad is the worst I've ever used (for fighting games especially). It's way overpriced for what you get, and I imagine the price is necessitated by the obscenely long USB cable which would be ideal to span a living room but is silly at a desk. I really don't get the "one thumb high and one thumb low" analog stick placement either; as infrequently as I use the gamepad I always have to figure out which way is "true north" through trial and error.

My next gamepad will probably be this one since Logitech has proven so capable in the past.

I really like the 360 pads and I've always considered them to have a fair amount of heft to them, especially compared to a lot of other pads, and they always feel solid and well built. Much prefer them to the Sony pads and just about every other pad I've had for the various consoles I've used over the years. Yeah the Dpads aren't up to much, but can't say they ever get that much use on my pads.

I'm also in the market for a new gamepad; my aging Logitech Dual Action suffers from an awful d-pad too. Looking at Amazon (.com and .de) reviews of the F310, it sounds like the analog sticks are crap. I don't see any complaints about the F510, though.

I have a logitech Rumblepad that I love, but the left stick has some issues now and it's miles out of warantee. I picked up an F... one of them (I forget which model ... for F#10 series), and it had the most horrible dead zone in the middle. There was not way I could find to get rid of it or change it either. I was quite miffed and I ultimately returned it. Street Fighter was easier with my wonky left stick than with the accurate but overly-deadened one. Maybe my F#10 was defective, but I got mixed reviews as to whether or not it's a broader problem and I'm not eager to spend my time on it again.

I've been seriously considering a PS3 controller as I don't like the feel of the 360 pad. But they both have enough things that bother me that I'd pay about half price for either one, and have trouble excusing more. The rumblepad really agrees with me. I should probably just hunt down another one of those, but I also don't use my pad often and I know plenty of people who have had their 360 and PS3 controllers as long as I've had this thing and used it more often without encountering any need to replace the device. So maybe it's worth the extra money just for the quality even if it's not my favorite controller. Oh well. I'll look into some of the recommendations on here that I'm not familiar with.

Gamepad hunting is surprisingly difficult given how many gamers enjoy using them.

I think of [the Internet] as a grisly raw steak laid out on a porcelain benchtop in the sun, covered in chocolate hazelnut sauce. In the background plays Stardustís Music Sounds Better With You. Thereís lots of fog. --tomeoftom

I bought xbox360 gamepad back then in 2008 and the left trigger button already makes funny noise when you press it,and i played with gamepay only several times lol. Other then that in works fine,never had any problems in games.